You made a new car sale, congratulations! You engaged your customer during the buying process by providing quality service, right? If not, you may have missed out on sowing the seeds of a lifelong dealer-customer relationship.

Making the sale is only the first step. To grow profits, you need to bring customers back for service again and again. In fact, studies show that 74 percent of customers who serviced their vehicle at their dealership in the last 12 months are likely to also buy their next vehicle from that same dealer. The No. 1 reason customers come back to dealers for service? Trust. Therefore, by cultivating trust and becoming the customer’s vendor of choice, you create a direct path to greater profit. Building a long-term relationship from an individual sale can be difficult, so dealers must connect with consumers in the medium they’re most likely to be receptive to: mobile smartphones.

Put smartphones to work for your dealership

The convenience of mobile smartphones is unmatched. The average smartphone user looks at his or her device 364 times per week, making consumers much more likely to engage with push notifications than traditional marketing. By making your business smartphone-accessible, including service scheduling via a mobile app, you can take your customer relationships to the next level.

Mobile convenience isn’t just about the device; it’s about the message. The most effective dealer apps are dealer-branded and include personalized offers. In other words, it should be clear that your dealership is making the offer, and that the offer is relevant and useful to a consumer’s specific situation, likely based on his or her specific vehicle and mileage.

It may sound like an impossible task to even think about expanding customer experience at your dealership to this level, but it’s easier than you think. The path is a straight line through mobile convenience, customer personalization, and brand equity.